Creating competitive advantage through IT

A Churchill Club panel discussion on July 27 dealt with the complex issue of getting competitive advantage from IT investments. Nick Carr stirred up controversy with his article and book positing that in most cases IT doesn't offer competitive advantage, basically because everybody has access to the same technology. Most CIOs and IT executives would say competitive advantage can be achieved with IT, but exactly how depends on many variables. At the Churchill Club event, Geoffrey Moore, a partner at Mohr Davidow Ventures author of Crossing the Chasm and other industry best sellers, moderated the panel discussion. Panelists included:

John Gallant, Editorial Director and President, Network World Fred Matteson, CIO, Fireman's Fund Randy Pond, SVP, Operations, Processes and Systems, Cisco

The panelists discussed managing the complexity of IT environments, introducing new technologies, returning value to the business with IT and balancing the need for speed with consistency and compliance issues. An audiocast of the panel is available as an MP3 that can be downloaded or, if you’re already subscribed to ZDNet’s IT Matters series of audio podcasts, it will show up on your system or MP3 player automatically (See ZDNet’s podcasts: How to tune in).